To use a rather non-PC allegory...
Raw data is like oil.
It is dirty, smelly, inconvenient and has very limited uses in its natural state. It is hard to get at and requires some prowess and brute force.
I'd guess only about 1 in 5000 of the population is involved in getting oil out of the ground.
Once refined as petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and plastics then we all use it and largely take for granted that this minority is involved in actually getting the black sticky stuff out of the ground on our behalf.
Raw data is one of the (clean) fuels of the future digital economy and we should be both recruiting the equivalent of oil workers to get it, and industrialists make it into something palatable and useful as well as looking actively for new oil fields to exploit.
Just as the early 20th century oil pioneers could neither foresee Concorde nor plastic knives, we cannot know what future Android/iPhone/Computers will evolve to exploit this vast resource.

Following the news that the US Congress might cut the funding for various flagship data sites like Data.gov, the following debate has sprung up on a little Q&A site - "What would you change about Data.gov to get more people to care?" I can't login to the discussion because their OAuth is busted,...

If you've ever wrangled a user interface, you've probably heard of Fitts' Law. It's pretty simple -- the larger an item is, and the closer it is to your cursor, the easier it is to click on. Kevin Hale put together a great visual summary of Fitts' Law, so rather than over-explain it, I'll refer...